Incidence of Overuse Musculoskeletal Injuries in Military Service Members With Traumatic Lower Limb Amputation

Objective

To describe the incidence of overuse musculoskeletal injuries in service members with combat-related lower limb amputation.

Design

Retrospective cohort study.

Setting

Military treatment facilities.

Participants

Service members with deployment-related lower limb injury (N=791): 496 with a major lower limb amputation and 295 with a mild lower limb injury.

Interventions

Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures

The outcomes of interest were clinical diagnosis codes (International Classification of Diseases–9th Revision) associated with musculoskeletal overuse injuries of the lumbar spine, upper limb, and lower limb regions 1 year before and 1 year after injury.

Results

The overall incidence of developing at least 1 musculoskeletal overuse injury within the first year after lower limb amputation was between 59% and 68%. Service members with unilateral lower limb amputation were almost twice as likely to develop an overuse lower or upper limb injury than those with mild combat-related injury. Additionally, service members with bilateral lower limb amputation were more than twice as likely to develop a lumbar spine injury and 4 times more likely to develop an upper limb overuse injury within the first year after amputation than those with mild combat-related injury.

Conclusions

Incidence of secondary overuse musculoskeletal injury is elevated in service members with lower limb amputation and warrants focused research efforts toward developing preventive interventions.